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Auction: 24111 - Orders, Decorations and Medals - e-Auction
Lot: 594

Three: Petty Officer S. Wells, Fleet Air Arm, Royal Navy, who endured relentless attacks on Hal Far airfield in Malta in 1941-43

British War and Victory Medals (79555 S. Wells, Ord., R.N.); Royal Navy L.S. & G.C., G.V.R., 3rd issue (79555 S. Wells, L.S., H.M.S. Bideford), the first with slack suspension, polished, nearly very fine (3)

Stanley Wells was born in Lavenham, Suffolk on 8 November 1899 and joined the Royal Navy as a Boy 2nd Class in October 1917. He subsequently served in the battleship H.M.S. Superb and the sloop Rosmary prior to the end of hostilities.

Awarded his L.S. & G.C. Medal in December 1932 and pensioned ashore as a Leading Seaman in November 1939, he was immediately re-employed.

In October 1940, he joined the strength of No. 828 Squadron, Fleet Air Arm, at Vulture and it was in the same capacity that he joined the aircraft carrier Victorious in the summer of 1941, then bound for Murmansk as an escort on the Arctic run.

No. 828 Squadron subsequently participated in a costly strike against Kirkenes, Norway at the end of the month, with a loss of five aircraft, prior to being embarked in the Argus for Gibraltar, and thence for Malta in the Ark Royal.

As verified by Wells's service record, he was to remain employed in support of the squadron's subsequent operations out of the embattled island in 1941-43, in which period, due to losses, it was amalgamated into the Naval Air Squadron Malta. Throughout most of that period, he and his comrades were based at Hal Far airfield, and therefore subjected to relentless attacks from Luftwaffe and Regio Aeronautica fighters and bombers.

The first attack on Hal Far took place in June 1940 and the last in May 1943. During that period some 2,300 tons of bombs were dropped on the airfield, with resultant ground crew casualties of 30 killed and 84 injured. Such facts would have been well-known to - and felt - by Wells, who attained Petty Officer status in the summer of 1942.

For some evocative footage of 828's Albacores in Malta in 1942, see this link:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=it47EciUk8w

Wells was released from naval service 'Class A' in October 1945.


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Sold for
£120

Starting price
£50